These two tracks, culled from the Antarctica sessions at Electrical Audio, jump up from the grooves with a rush to spur you after the extended fog and furor of our collective 2020–21 blip. It’s time again — get up! The dance move called “The Guest” is a bit like The Twist, but more like The Writhe actually. There’s some horror wrapped up in the song’s meaning, so you should feel no shame — consider it earned writhing on your part!Here, Flat Worms take a DEVO-esque passivity, looking in on the actions of the real people in this world. It’s pretty scary. Start flopping, and by the time that they get to the big rave-up at the end, you’ll be aligned in time. “The Circle” belongs to that tradition of 45 tracks that may or may not allude to the 45 itself. “Find the circle! Find the center!” might serve as both timely polemic and shameless self-promotion. Or maybe not. One thing we’re not ambiguous about — the acid-glazed lead guitar that hovers like a neon apparition above the thrashing rhythm section. Antarctica was a life sentence from what feels like a lifetime ago—“The Guest” 7" is the emphatic exclamation point that brings it all back to life.
